This accord is just one domino in the convoluted mess that snapped in 1914 and started WWI. Those of you who read The Guns of August -And that should be all of you IMO- will recognize this as the April 1904 Treaty.

By the Entente Cordiale both powers reduced the virtual isolation into which they had withdrawn—France involuntarily, the UK complacently—while they had eyed each other over African affairs. The UK had had no ally but Japan (1902), of little use if war should break out in European waters; France had had none but Russia, soon to be discredited in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The agreement was upsetting to Germany, whose policy had long been to rely on Franco-British antagonism. A German attempt to check the French in Morocco in 1905 (the Tangier Incident, or First Moroccan Crisis), and thus upset the Entente, served only to strengthen it. Military discussions between the French and the British general staffs were soon initiated. Franco-British solidarity was confirmed at the Algeciras Conference (1906) and reconfirmed in the Second Moroccan Crisis (1911).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entente_Cordiale